jQuery Masonry

The jQuery Masonry library will probably be shipped with WordPress in the future. Its sole purpose, for now, is to provide dynamic stacking for header images now that flexible header images in themes are available as a feature.

For those of you who missed it, a new flexible_header_image_upload feature can be supported by themes to provide header images of any size. The Twenty Twelve theme currently makes use of this feature. Flexible image headers functionality is still quite raw, but works. Uploaded headers are stacked perfectly occupying the least possible space regardless of their size.

Compare the two images above, see how Masonry helps? Masonry can be further leveraged throughout WordPress by themes; I see Pinterest-style pinboard posts being organized in a fluid manner.

Atom server moves

The WordPress AtomPub Server moves into its own class file from wp-app.php. It now resides in wp-includes/class-wp-atom-server.php in the trunk.

Additionally, any plugin should be able to replace the server completely by hooking into the new wp_atom_server_class hook. Other small changes in how the server dies on error have been implemented as well.

XML-RPC

Using the wp.getOptions method of the built-in XMLRPC Server. The stylesheet option matches the slug and root directory name of the theme, while the template option matches the slug and root directory of the parent (matches stylesheet if theme is not a child theme).

More importantly, new Taxonomy-related methods have been integrated in changeset 20137, enveloping CRUD (create, read, update, delete) methods for terms and taxonomies.

get_page_template_slug()

get_page_template_slug( $post_id = null ) will be the new way of getting the current page template. One of the old/current ways is to get_post_meta( $page_id, '_wp_page_template' ), not too clean, is it?

Admin bar level up

The administration bar will be loaded in the header instead of the footer to become immediately available.

And, much more importantly (for me, at least), is changeset 20102. How many times have you had to “view source” when dumping some output before anything output is produced by WordPress? When logged in, the first line or two are always obscured by the Administration bar. With added padding you can see the obscured 28 pixels without having to logout, view source, or remove it all together.

If you can’t wait, the patch is simple and doesn’t require core changes in the front-end (use your theme’s stylesheet); for the backend enqueue or print your own. Add padding-top to a body with a class of admin-bar.

Comment while editing posts

Ever found wanting yourself to be able to edit comments to a specific post? You should be able to in WordPress 3.4. Yes, this comment meta box is already available in Post Edit screens for published posts and they plain simply rock!

Theme Customizer

This very exciting functionality appears to be broken at the time of writing, although many interesting changes seem to have occurred, like added color pickers, actual background color changing functionality, etc.

Google Summer of Code

WordPress 3.5 is already being discussed with thoughts of being one of the mentors for this year’s Google Summer of Code, with release coinciding with the end of GSoC. This means that we might actually get to see WordPress 3.5 somewhere around September 2012.

As far as schedules for WordPress 3.4 go, check out the the schedule for approximate release dates and development milestones.